On The Cultivation Of Learner Autonomy Based On Constructivism Approach

Since the 1980's, many English educators and researchers focus on whole person education instead of the language only. As the English learners have the ability to be autonomous, they can master new knowledge and face new challenges. Especially nowadays the demands on English-majored students become higher and higher, which requires the students change their learning style and idea. Thus, how to cultivate English learner autonomy in English teaching is urgent and necessary.On the base of an investigation, the author finds that some English learners are little interested in learning English, however, they have too much dependence and they are not very positive in learning that. Therefore, the author explores the feasibility and the methods of training English learners' autonomy.Constructivism approach believes that learners shouldn't be negative to receive the knowledge but to construct the whole learning system; it emphasizes the autonomy and construction of learners. It believes that knowledge is constructed by individuals rather than transmitted from one person to another. It emphasizes the complete involvement of the learners in the teaching and learning process.In order to confirm that autonomous teaching model can offer a good atmosphere for students to learn business English, create more opportunities to have autonomous learning, the author carries out an experiment in two classes majored in business English in grade two of Foreign Language School of Linyi Normal University. The students in the experimental class were trained on some autonomous learning strategies and motivated to be interested in business English learning; the control class had the regular classes. The result shows that students in the experimental class have strong autonomy ability in preview, review and self-assess and form good learning habits.There are seven parts in this thesis. In the first part, the author gives a brief introduction to setbacks in current English teaching. The background, the objective and significance of the present study and the outline of this thesis are presented in this part. In the second part, constructivism theory is illustrated and in the third part, learner autonomy.The fourth part briefly analyzes the relationship between constructivism theory and thelearner autonomy. The fifth part is the design of the experiment, the subjects used in theexperiment, the procedure of the experiment. The sixth part puts forward some suggestionsto promoting students' learner autonomy under constructivism theory. The last part is theconclusion.